---
title: I am walking in despair, seeking in vain for those who gave me birth. — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: I am walking in despair, seeking in vain for those who gave me birth. Who acts: I. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4, sentence 140

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I am walking in despair, seeking in vain for those who gave me birth.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** walk, seek, give · **To what, where:** despair, vain, birth, me

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78208:6:142
# text = I am walking in despair, seeking in vain for those who gave me birth.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	obl	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | present · progressive | I |  |  | despair |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in despair=Trajectory |
| 2 | **seek** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  | vain for those |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent in vain=Location |
| 3 | **give** | past |  | birth | me |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient birth=Theme |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Winning Buddha's smile», Project Gutenberg book 78208 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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